Somali Fighters Attack Troops, Foreign Forces

All Africa, 16 October 2008

Somali resistance fighters attacked bases housing Ethiopian occupation forces, African Union peacekeepers and (Ethiopian-backed) Somali soldiers in coordinated attacks Thursday, Radio Garowe reported.

At least 15 people were killed in separate battles that raged in the countryside and in the capital Mogadishu, including mortar raids that killed many civilians.

Somali resistance fighters launched mortars as a military plane landed at Mogadishu's Aden Adde International Airport, where an AU contingent is based. In a separate attack, AU peacekeepers near the K4 junction came under insurgent fire.

Somali police aided the AU soldiers during the K4 battle where at least seven people including three police officers were killed, according to witnesses.

AU peacekeeping force spokesman Bahoku Barigye said four civilians died but no soldier was killed during the attack.

Attacks on Ethiopian troops in southern Mogadishu sparked battles and retaliatory artillery barrages killed at least six civilians inside Bakara Market, witnesses reported.

Medina Hospital officials said 20 wounded victims were admitted following heavy battles in the morning and during the afternoon.

Separately, a military vehicle was targeted in a roadside explosion that killed at least 2 soldiers aboard, witnesses in Hamarjabab quarter told Radio Garowe.

Col. Dahir Mohamed Hersi, the Somali army's spokesman, denied reports that he was inside the vehicle or that his bodyguards were among the dead.

Four other civilians were wounded in the heavy explosion.

Meanwhile, Ethiopian occupation forces traveling through the regions of Bay and Lower Shabelle were ambushed by Somali resistance fighters.

There were no reports of casualties from the battle in the countryside, but the attack is part of the Somali fighters' resistance against the Ethiopian occupation forces, the Ethiopian-backed Somali interim government and its AU allies.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi reiterated today his government's stance to keep troops in Somalia until the AU deploys a full peacekeeping force of 8,000 soldiers.